Pokerstars stealing money from my account.

Originally posted by hockbrianey1
Today I had a chat with pokerstars staff. My brother, who no long lives with me, had been banned from pokerstars a couple years earlier. I informed pokerstars of this to make sure that this wouldn't cause any problems and to make sure my money would be safe.

Instead they replied with "Hello James,

Due to your close association with barred account 'hockbrianey8' we have concluded that it is not in the best interest of our players to allow you to continue to play on PokerStars. We cannot take the risk that they could gain access to our tables via your account. It is unfortunate that you have become yet another victim of unfair action by them.

Please understand that this decision has been made in the interest of protecting the integrity of our games. Any further accounts that you create will be closed without warning, and the funds therein seized to compensate the victims of illicit activity on PokerStars.

We can no longer permit you to play on PokerStars.

Regards,

Dave
Game Integrity Team"

They have decided to take my money from my account and ban me because I am related to someone who is a cheater. This is simply theft.

I urge other members of the Pokerstrategy community to ban together to prevent this clear example of a company taking advantage of a single individual.

With no regards to the law whatsoever Pokerstars has basically decided that they have the right to take money from people. Remember this when you consider how safe your money really is when it is on this site.

Where does it say they took your money. You state they said if you create any more accounts they will take that money.
It sounds like they are giving you a fair warning.
There are other sites to play on. Stars is not the only one around so I do not knpw why you would want to play where you are not welcome. Take your money and find a new home.

No it is no warning. It says that "we can no longer permit you to play on pokerstars" meaning they have banned my account. Then they stated "Any further accounts that you create will be closed without warning, and the funds therein seized to compensate the victims of illicit activity on PokerStars."

This means that they have took the funds. I tried to ask them to send the funds back to my fulltilt account which is not banned, where the funds came from.

They replied "You were told before that we will close further accounts and confiscate balances and we will continue to do so.

We wish you all the best for the future.

Regards,

David
PokerStars Game Integrity"

They also referred to me using my brother's name.

I would really like some sort of recognition of this issue from the community.

I'm sorry I misunderstood it.
That really sucks.
I'm wondering if they will ban your full-tilt account as well as Stars owns FT.
SLap your brother upside the head next time you see him.
Pokerstrategy has a lot of other sites you can play on.

If they're taking your money from an existing account that's shocking. Their note says "if you create further accounts.... money will be seized" OK, fair enough, if they catch you again they're saying they'll take the money - fair warning. Surely they can't just take your existing funds on a whim? Pokerstrategy, can you do something about this?

Thats ok it was confusing for me too. I am worried about my full-tilt account too. But I already moved almost all the funds to Stars which they took so its not a real problem.

I was just hoping that maybe other people could send complaints to stars about this.

Or at the very least take this as a warning about Pokerstars.

They did take the existing funds on a whim. I am trying to get them to send an email clearly stating that they did this.

it doesnt make much sense, to stars ban you (if you were and are fair) , just cuz ur brother cheated or what. looks like bad joke from stars...
u should say u r not roomies and he doesnt have access to ur pc or whatever and wtf is that... i miss something on this story, it just doesnt make sense to take your money if you are "ok"...

I have been a member of stars since 2005 and have never had a problem.
In fact I was in a game one night a few years ago and 2 guys at the table were blatantly cheating by playing together. It was so obvious it was pathetic. I reported to stars my suspicions and got a reply stating they went and checked previous play by the 2 players in question and banned the 2 players.
Because of this I will have to sit this one out.
I feel for you I really do but not having heard both sides makes it to difficult for me to comprehend.
Good Luck

next

Hello Brian,

Yes we are.

Regards,

David
PokerStars Game Integrity

> _______________________________________________________
> From: [Edited by Lazza61]
> Sent: 03/12/14 11:15:01
> To: "support@pokerstars.com" <support@pokerstars.com>
> Subject: RE: PokerStars Support - Account Closed
>
> Can you just confirm that you are in fact taking the funds from my existing account?
>
> > From: support@pokerstars.com
> > To: [Edited by Lazza61]
> > Subject: RE: RE: PokerStars Support - Account Closed
> > Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 19:56:48 -0400

There you go indisputable proof.

I did tell that I do not live with him and he has no access to my computer or account whatsoever.

yeah i feel sorry for you, gl, it's just absurd.

Originally posted by hockbrianey1
I did tell that I do not live with him and he has no access to my computer or account whatsoever.

My linked FullTilt account and funds have now been taken.

Does Stars' Terms and Conditions allow for this?

I guess so. Can I really sue this company? My hands are effectively tied.

Even if the funds at stake are minor, there is surely a major story here. I am fascinated, happily from a safe distance, as I have no funds on Stars.
I think we are owed some fuller explanations about what is going on, both from the original poster and from Stars.

Originally posted by DeetM
Does Stars' Terms and Conditions allow for this?

Quoted from the End User License Agreement:

"5.9 FRAUDULENT BEHAVIOR. In the event that PokerStars deems that a User has engaged or attempted to engage in fraudulent, unlawful, dishonest or improper activity while using the Service, (...) PokerStars shall be entitled to take such action as it sees fit, including, but not limited to:

a. immediately blocking a User's access to the Service;
b. terminating a User's account with PokerStars;
c. seizing the funds within a User's account;
d. disclosing such information (including the identity of the User) to financial institutions, relevant authorities and/or any person or entity that has the legal right to such information; and/or
e. taking legal action against a User."

"10.14 PokerStars reserves the right to close a User’s PokerStars account for any reason whatsoever at any time without notice to to such User."

Whatever the case, it was a huge dickmove from Pokerstars in my opinion.
Almost makes me want to "seize my funds" and deposit them somewhere else.

Really sorry that you have to go through that, hockbrianey. How much money did they take, by the way?

Hey hockbrianey1,

Without knowing all facts it's incredibly difficult to judge.

I'm sure Pokerstars are not banning your account because they wont to "Steal" your money. They're making more than enough to resort to such tactics.

Here in the UK we have a Gambling Commission where we can go to complain and get help. Do you have similar in Canada?

You can also ask PokerStars themselves to see if you can be passed onto someone higher up the food chain or if there is someone else you can speak with (Such as a Canadian Gambling Commission).

Best of luck !

I'm also moving this over to the PokerStars board